rjb@akgua.UUCP (R.J. Brown [Bob]) (06/11/85)
First, let me start with a few disclaimers...
I am not a Southern Baptist nor am I related to same
by blood or marriage. I am not in Journalism (as should
be obvious :-) ).
Let me quote from an AP article out of Atlanta that had
this headline in my local paper:
MODERATE BAPTISTS MAY BE READY TO DUMP
STANLEY
"The election in Dallas next week will climax a fierce campaign
launched by moderates who claim Stanley, pastor of First Baptist
Church in Atlanta, is leading a conservative effort to force its
ideology - THAT EVERY WORD in the Bible must be interpreted LITER-
ALLY - on all Southern Baptist agencies and seminaries."
It would be nice if reporters assigned to write these articles
knew just a tad more about their subject matter. I don't think
we're going to find many Baptists who upon reading Jesus' words
"I am the door..." or "I am the Bread..." are going to make the
non-figurative assumptions.
I think the doctrines that our "reporter" has messed up are
Literal Verbal Inspiration and Biblical Inerrancy.
This kind of thing happens on a regular basis from the press
but to paraphrase H.L. Mencken - when it is necessary to assign
a cause based on the choices of either malice or stupidity -
choose stupidity every time.
Would some Conservative and Moderate Southern Baptists please
comment ??
Bob Brown {...ihnp4!akgua!rjb}nlt@duke.UUCP (06/12/85)
Bob Brown posts the following AP news article and asks for comments. My article is being posted to net.religion.christian only, and I suggest that any further discussion on the topic be confined to n.r.c, as opposed to net.religion. > MODERATE BAPTISTS MAY BE READY TO DUMP > STANLEY > >"The election in Dallas next week will climax a fierce campaign >launched by moderates who claim Stanley, pastor of First Baptist >Church in Atlanta, is leading a conservative effort to force its >ideology - THAT EVERY WORD in the Bible must be interpreted LITER- >ALLY - on all Southern Baptist agencies and seminaries." It is hard to make a judgement based on a single paragraph of text, but yes, the reporter's statement is misleading. The issue is not literal interpretation, but inerrancy. The conservative position in the denomination is that every word in the Bible is there because God wanted it there, and thus every assertion in the Bible is accurate. (Note that even most conservative thinkers allow for the actual wording to have been in accordance with the human author's own style of writing. Very few view the authors as mere dictating machines.) The "moderate" position claims a stronger human influence on the writing of the Bible, stating that since imperfect human beings, living in an imperfect human culture, with incomplete knowledge, wrote the Bible, some of the biases and mistaken notions held by these authors and their cultures may have found their way into Biblical writings. Nevertheless, the moderates would say, the Bible was written by men of God and records, as accurately as possible given the limitations of human knowledge, their experiences of God. It is incorrect to describe conservatives as insisting upon the literal interpretation of every word in the Bible; any reasonable approach to reading the Bible will recognize the use of metaphors, figures of speech, and so forth. (For the record, although I am not a Baptist now, I grew up in a Southern Baptist church and family, and I have been following the moderate-conservative feud fairly closely. My own views are close to the "moderate" position as described above.) N. L. Tinkham (duke!nlt)
pcl@npois.UUCP (Paul Levin) (06/12/85)
Just to give you a little insite as to why the press is ignorant on Christian matters: A recent poll determined that over 80% (more like 95%) or the people working in the press (newspapers, magazines, TV news, etc.) to not believe in God, or go the any kind of church or temple, or believe in any morality that stems from the Bible. What is ironic is that these are the people that have a position of great influence our lives; and they are not religious while 80% of the general public surveyed does believe in God, does attend a church or temple and does believe in some kind of morality stemming from the Bible. I worry when I hear the phrase, "More power to the press." Paul Levin npois!pcl
pcl@npois.UUCP (Paul Levin) (06/13/85)
Just to give you a little insite as to why the press is ignorant on Christian matters: A recent poll determined that over 80% (more like 95%) of the people working in the press (newspapers, magazines, TV news, etc.) do not believe in God, or go to any kind of church or temple, or believe in any morality that stems from the Bible. What is ironic is that these are the people that have a position of great influence on our lives; and they are not religious while 80% of the general public surveyed does believe in God, does attend a church or temple and does believe in some kind of morality stemming from the Bible. I worry when I hear the phrase, "More power to the press." Paul Levin npois!pcl
savage@ssc-vax.UUCP (Lowell Savage) (06/15/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MICRO, PLEASE *** Paul Levin (npois!pcl) writes: > Just to give you a little insite as to why the press is ignorant on > Christian matters: > > A recent poll determined that over 80% (more like 95%) of the people > working in the press (newspapers, magazines, TV news, etc.) do not > believe in God, or go to any kind of church or temple, or believe > in any morality that stems from the Bible. > > What is ironic is that these are the people that have a position > of great influence on our lives; and they are not religious while > 80% of the general public surveyed does believe in God, does > attend a church or temple and does believe in some kind of morality > stemming from the Bible. > > I worry when I hear the phrase, "More power to the press." I hope that this is not another indication of what seems to me to be a rather prevalent "well that's the way it is even though it shouldn't be" attitude. Yes, the press (those nasty rumor traders), the military (those big bad murderers), the government (those bribe-taking politicians), big business (those ruthless wheeler-dealers). . .are so infested with non-christians that it is hopeless. And so Christians that might be interested in becoming part of one or more of these groups of people get discouraged, decide that some occupation is "too dirty" for a Christian, and then find some other occupation. I personally think that this line of reasoning is wrong (except in those cases where the occupation really is evil (like robbery, or if you believe that the military is in the same category.) Christians should be part of these occupations and should try to do a good job. At the very least, per- haps a Christian will displace a non-christian and prevent the evil that that non-christian might otherwise have caused. At best, a christian in a high-visibility occupation could bring his/her co-workers to Christ, or bring others to Christ through their example. All of this assumes, of course, that the Christian doesn't allow him/her-self to be conformed to the world, and do the evil (in the attempt to raise his/her status) that the non-christian that he/she replaced would have done. I don't mean for this to be a flame against Paul or anyone else who complains against the non-christian bias in the press or anywhere else. I just wanted to take the opportunity to point out that when we see something wrong with our world, perhaps that is something that we as christians are being called to begin changing! There's more than one way to be savage Lowell C. Savage
mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) (06/26/85)
In article <351@npois.UUCP> pcl@npois.UUCP (Paul Levin) writes: > A recent poll determined that over 80% (more like 95%) of the people > working in the press (newspapers, magazines, TV news, etc.) do not > believe in God, or go to any kind of church or temple, or believe > in any morality that stems from the Bible. > > What is ironic is that these are the people that have a position > of great influence on our lives; and they are not religious while > 80% of the general public surveyed does believe in God, does > attend a church or temple and does believe in some kind of morality > stemming from the Bible. > > I worry when I hear the phrase, "More power to the press." Send away NOW for your free subscription to that paragon of Christian hubris, "The Plain Truth, A Magazine of Understanding" published by Herbert Armstrong of Ambassador College. It makes me glad to hear that the American (presumably) press is largely irreligious, if The Plain Truth is the alternative. Other "religious" media I've read include the Scientologist's thing, which spent most of its pages grinding an axe against the feds (esp. the IRS); and The Christian Science Monitor, which I strongly suspect of ommitting much (even their comics are very few and very bland.) -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh
fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) (06/27/85)
In article <351@npois.UUCP> pcl@npois.UUCP (Paul Levin) writes: > A recent poll determined that over 80% (more like 95%) of the people > working in the press (newspapers, magazines, TV news, etc.) do not > believe in God, or go to any kind of church or temple, or believe > in any morality that stems from the Bible. > > What is ironic is that these are the people that have a position > of great influence on our lives; and they are not religious while > 80% of the general public surveyed does believe in God, does > attend a church or temple and does believe in some kind of morality > stemming from the Bible. > > I worry when I hear the phrase, "More power to the press." Rather than comparing jounalists' beliefs with average Americans, why not compare them with the general population of Americans WHO ARE EDUCATED, AWARE OF CURRENT EVENTS AND ARTICULATE? After all, these are the people from which jounalists are recruited. The average American doesn't even READ newspapers, except perhaps for a couple of headlines, the sports and comics. I don't know whether or not my suggested comparison would yield different results. But the comparison you gave above is irrelevant. Frank Silbermann