As a reformed / recovering Baptist, I make it a point to keep tabs on the SBC to keep abreast of the hate and intolerance they're spreading.
Today I learned that the SBC is removing itself from the Baptist World Alliance because of the latter's inclusion of a more-liberal group, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which the SBC has accused of taking an "anti-Amerkun tone."
Full article: http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040615/D837H5K00.html
More below the fold...
The paragraphs that jumped out at me were the following:
The December report complained that some in the alliance had questioned "the truthfulness of Holy Scripture," refused to affirm the necessity of conscious faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, promoted women preachers, criticized the SBC and its foreign mission board and adopted an "anti-American" tone.
The last straw came in 2003, when the alliance accepted as a member the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a rival group to the SBC formed by moderates who oppose denominational leaders' conservative policies.
Prior to Tuesday's vote, Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, said the SBC should not give money or endorsement to an organization that includes liberals.
He also complained that the American Baptist Churches, a U.S. denomination, includes "gay-friendly congregations," and that other members of the world alliance call the inerrancy of Scripture into question.
It never ceases to amaze me, for a group that considers themselves the be-all, end-all of Christianity, the level of hatred, bigotry, misogyny, and all that they display. I remember a few years ago reading that the SBC had made a top priority out of converting Jews to Christianity. The mind just boggles.