Maybe I am being a troll posting this, I don’t know. If someone wants to call me on it, fine.
The annual Southern Baptist Convention is being held here in St Louis this week, and as one might imagine, one of the attendees said something very stupid and hateful
I am not sure how much national attention this story has received. I didn’t find the story listed on foxnews.com or msnbc, I had to do a search on cnn.com to find it there.
That’s absolutely hideous!
Well holy cow, no pun intended. It’s disgusting when religious fanatics when they use a truly horrifying event to “demonstrate” why theirs is the superior faith.
wow…
I did like this line from Mr. Hooper, though:
Glad to see ol’ Pat is getting all the respect he deserves.
The really frightening aspect - other than the fact that not only does the group not repudiate this jerk, but continues to support him - is his statement that religious pluralism is the cause of this country’s problems.
Somebody might owe Kirkland and apology.
Oh. My. FUCKING. Gods.
What a waste of skin cells and hot air. It saddens me that people hold and publicly voice opnions like this, and it saddens me even more that people listen.
Well, I don’t know how old Muhammed’s last wife was, and I don’t know what they did together, so I don’t know if the guy’s characterization was correct or not.
I do however, feel kind of bad for what the Southern Baptists have sunk to recently. It used to be that Southern Baptists were a real diverse, anti-authoritarian bunch of people. They were never one of the more liberal of the Baptist denominations, but they were big on theological independence and free thought, and about everybody’s right to worship G-d in their own way, interpret the bible the way they want, and argue with anybody who’d tell them otherwise.
So, really, for me, the second story, about the missionaries, is the more disturbing one. The first story dpesn’t really tell me much more than I already know, and is partly just standard rhetoric “Our religion is better than their religion. We’re a religion of peace, they’re a religion of war. We’re law abiding, they encourage terrorists. Their founder was evil”.
Now, that’s not very nice, and it’s not very tolerant, but it’s also a lot of rhetorical garbage designed to get fired up by their compain to convert Muslims. The story about making the missionaries sign the pledge, on the other hand, is a complete betrayal of Baptist values, both of equality between all believers, regardless of sex, and the right of each individual Baptist to hold his or her views freely, and not be subject to edicts by any sort of central body.
This is nothing new for Southern Baptist Conventions. If they aren’t attacking each other, they are attacking someone else. It adds a little spice to the festivities. 
I was just talking to my girlfriend tonight when she mentioned this (she lives in St. Charles).
It’s in times like this that I just can’t think of anything to say, except that some people truly disgust me.
LilShieste
Well, no shit kids. What kniz said. This should come as no shock or surprise to anyone at all familiar with the SBC.
Shit like this makes the Baby Jesus puke his little guts out.
I remember a few years ago the SBC was held in Salt Lake City.
A good time was had by all, I’ll tell ya what. Man, it makes me laugh just thinking about it. At church (Mormon) they told us “If the Baptists come to your door, be polite, invite them to dinner, and hand them a Book of Mormon.”
I don’t know which is more ridiculous. The thought that the Baptists were on a holy mission to save our souls (why else would they choose SLC?) or that the only way to stop them in their tracks would be to pass out BoMs.
And let me tell ya–it was rough being an atheist in SLC that week.
I agree with Captain Amazing on the above quote, but what startles me even more is that the SBC is thinking of missionaries out of the field while emphasizing their evangelistic emphasis. As a sheer matter of numbers, how will they be able to bring the gospel to more people with fewer missionaries in the field? (See here for some comments.)
As to the OP, Reverend Vines has every right to state his comments, but I fear that those comments might make the SBC’s stated purpose of sharing the gospel with the Islamic community a bit more difficult.
I’ll admit that I don’t know as much about the life of Mohammed as I should, but I do remember reading that, historically, not all wives in pluralistic marriage were married for sexual purposes: young girls were often married into a family when they would otherwise have no means of support.
Putzery abounds in the Southern Baptist Convention. I don’t know about the internal structure or the official dogma, but I did used to live next to a Southern Baptist family when I lived in Missouri. They did not spout a very tolerant faith, and would actively try to convert anyone who wasn’t Christian (a set that included Catholics, Mormons, Unitarians, and pretty much anyone who wasn’t Baptist). I was very quiet about my atheism in Missouri, and I still have a gut response to the twisted parts of the Baptist screed.
And somewhere in the world, several Catholic bishops breathe a quiet sigh of relief, thinking, “Well, the heat’s off of us for a day or two. You can always count on our brothers in the SBC!”
Ol’ Jerry Vines is a local boy - First Baptist is a huge church that owns chunks of downtown Jax. I attended a service there once years ago - to this day, I shudder remembering that production and the plastic feel of it all. Way to set a good example of love of neighbor, Jerry…
Maybe he should read the Bible that he claims is inerrant. :rolleyes: