Southern Baptist are the largest Baptist community, called the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). This convention meets on a yearly basis and members from all Southern Baptist Congregations attend. These members are called Messengers. The help vote on new leaders and bring new information about their congregation to other congregations. This paper will discuss the SBC controversies faced in 1985, why I think this topic is significant, and why people should know about the SBC today.
In 1985, the SBC believed ordination was restricted to men, and women could become deacons. These beliefs are focused on the New Testament of the Bible. Southern Baptist are conservative, and “most oppose the use of alcohol as a beverage, homosexual activity, and abortion with few exceptions” (“Southern Baptist Convention”). There was a great deal of tension at the 1985 SBC. This was a “civil war” between liberals and conservatives. The conservatives were in control of the Convention but the liberals wanted to have their views heard. Liberals wanted to give women equal rights to become pastors, just as men. The liberals wanted to teach that submissive wives did not mean to let husbands beat their wives, but that the man was the head of the household and together they raised their family centered on God and what would make Him happy.
According to Helen Parmley with The Washington Post, “Unity was easier when the SBC was a regional body of isolated and less-educated all-white southerners, with compatible cultural and doctrinal beliefs”. This shows how much control the SBC wanted over their individual congregations. This religion should have the freedom to preach how the preacher of each congregation seems fit, not as a controlled way of thinking, as ...
... middle of paper ...
...ted
Berryhill, Michael. “The Baptist Schism.” The New York Times. LexisNexis, 2014. Web. 22
Feb. 2014.
Executive Committee of the SBC. “Southern Baptists and Women Pastors.” Baptist 2 Baptist.
Southern Baptist Convention, 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Lazo, Luz. “Baptist Leader Cecil Sherman Dies at Age 82; He was Civil-Rights Activist and
Taught at Seminary here.” Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia). LexisNexis, 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Parmley, Helen. “Southern Baptists Face Threat to Unity.” The Washington Post. LexisNexis,
2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Salmon, Jacqueline L. “Southern Baptists Struggle to Maintain Flock; As Numbers Dwindle,
Leaders Battle Over Policies to Secure Church’s Future.” The Washington Post. LexisNexis, 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
“Southern Baptist Convention.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 21
Feb. 2014.
This paper elaborates on the diverse contributions peoples of African descent have made to the pluralistic religious landscape of America and replicates various passages from our textbook. It focuses on the personal narratives of non-religious to religious leaders—exemplifying their influence on the African American religious movement during slavery and the reconstruction of America. Each section represents different historical periods, regional variations, and non-Christian expressions of African-American religion.
In A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow, David L. Chappell sheds new light on the components of the civil rights movement, concretely adding prophetic religion to the mix of ingredients of those tumultuous times from 1940s-1960s. Chappell’s thesis states “that faith drove black southern protesters to their extraordinary victories in the mid-1960s, grew out of a realistic understanding of the typically dim prospects for social justice in the world.” The protester’s prophetic content of their speeches, diaries, and other paraphernalia related to the civil rights movement, illuminates this great divide. With an eye for detail, Chappell points to the factors of religion that have been overlooked by
Robert Laurence Moore has written a delightful, enlightening, and provocative survey of American church history centered around the theme of "mixing" the "sacred" with the "secular" and vice versa. The major points of conversation covered include the polarization caused by the public display of religious symbols, the important contribution that women and Africans have made to the American religious mosaic, the harmony and friction that has existed between science and religion, the impact of immigration on religious pluralism, and the twin push toward the union and separation of religion and politics.
Montgomery, William. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1993. Print.
Southland Christian Church, one of several worship centers in the United States that has earned the moniker “Six Flags over Jesus,” is Lexington’s largest megachurch. With a weekly attendance of 8,000 people and an operating budget that supports a staff of over eighty members, Southland far exceeds most U.S. congregations in terms of financial resources and social clout. In recent years, popular and scholarly studies have attempted to situate the megachurch movement within a broad cultural context. Although the majority of these analyses dispute the precise definition of a megachurch, most distinguish these multiplex sanctuaries from smaller worship communities by using the same criteria—i.e. weekly attendance, campus acreage, annual budget, etc.—that megachurches themselves draw on to represent their own success. [2] However, the essence of a megachurch is not its large buildings, but rather the theology of consumption that informs its programming.[3] In this way, a megachurch ethos has infiltrated even the smallest congregations in the United States and has helped to solidify Christianity’s inextricable connection to consumer capitalism. To those who see megachurches as symptomatic of a flawed Christianity, market-minded church growth confounds one of the faith’s oldest dualities, the contradiction of living in the world without conforming to its ways, as Paul puts it in Romans 12. Megachurches at once reject “the world” and participate in it by seeking to win the lost and wow the consumer at the same time.
Maffly-Kipp, L. (2001). The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html
Many Southerners supported, in some measure, the position of the clergy to some extent. Yet, they did not wish to abandon their system suddenly and without an adequate replacement. They were also concerned that free labor promoted infidelity, secularism, liberal theology, perversities, egotism and personal license to the detriment of God-ordained authority and the Christian social order.
Religion also played a role in racial discrimination in the South. According to a writer James Bennet in 1877, to 1920 New Orleans, white Methodist church became concerned about segregation in the South in regards to their church activities and establishment (Barker, 345). Although for the Catholics, they were integrated churches. They became worried about segregation in church activities. On the other hand, Bennet stated, the blacks remained equally with the whites in the church and shared the same mass. The whites disliked the idea and introduced segregation (345). However, for these churches segregation was not a religious issue but a social problem.
In Walter B. Shurden’s The Baptist Identity, he looks at four of the core elements, or freedoms, that shape and mold Baptist theology and their identity. The four core concepts he explores in his book are Bible freedom, soul freedom, church freedom, and religious freedom. While looking at these four values, he examines how they mold and shape the Baptist identity and how they came to be. The origin to each of these values in the Baptist tradition is addressed as well as their benefits and draw backs. He explains their purpose and necessity in the Baptist denomination and how it effects the denomination as a whole.
LifeWay Research focuses on topics such as church leadership, theology, church practices, and ethnic issues. However, they do not limit themselves to the betterment of the Church. There is also a strong emphasis on the unchurched in their projects. They have and continue to focus on outreach, evangelism, and missions. With that being said, it is the opinion of this writer that because of the phenomenal work of LifeWay and their dependence on God, the future of the Southern Baptist Church is in good hands.
Many people who hear the name African Methodist Episcopal Church automatically make assumptions. These assumptions are based on the faulty premises that the name of the church denotes that the church is only meant for African-Americans or that it is filled with racist’s teachings. Neither of those assumptions is true. The Africans communities established their own churches and ordained their own preachers who could relate to the struggle of being a slave and the struggle of being a free African in a strange land that spoke freedom but their action said something different.
In April of 1963 the Southern Christian Leaders Conference (SCLC) organized a campaign against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. African Americans in Birmingham in part with the SCLC arrang...
"Center Update: Case Studies on Religion and Conflict." The Berkley Center. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
In the past few years, America has been becoming more and more liberal with its stance on various issues. We are changing laws and practices that have long been in place, and while some view it as progressive, others view it as morally wrong. By encouraging changes in practices that were established with a Biblical mindset, America has begun to subtly alienate the Christian. Although America is still a land where individuals are free to practice their faith freely, it is becoming harder to display...
These definitions will be the parameters used for the discussion of the role of religion and churches in the civil rights era. This essay will discuss the views and influence that various Churches and religions had on the civil rights era. It will examine the differing historian?s views of religious influence on the civil rights era. [1: Oxford