Two decades after declaring victory in the war over biblical inerrancy, Southern Baptists are battling about booze.
Seeking to remain relevant in today’s culture, many Baptists have abandoned former taboos against social activities like dancing and going to movies. Now some are questioning the denomination’s historic position of abstaining from alcohol, prompting others to draw a line.
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina recently passed a motion to “study a policy of the social use of alcohol” related to funding of church plants, employment of personnel and nomination of persons to committees and boards of trustees.
Rome doesn’t recognize Anglican Orders.
Anglicans don’t recognize the authority of the Pope
Baptists don’t recognize each other in the Liquor Store.
If you go fishing, and you want to take one Baptist friend, you’d better bring along a second Baptist. If he is your only guest, the first Baptist will drink all your beer.
This reminds me of a conversation that I had in 2003 with a Nazarene colleague. The Nazarenes were going to have their national convention within a month or so of GC2003. We discussed the leading issues of our upcoming conventions. Ours, of course, involved ratification of the election of the bishop-elect of New Hampshire. The “big” issue for the Nazarenes that year was whether a Nazarene could patronize a restaurant that had a bar, even though neither the Nazarene, nor any person in his/her party, had any intention of ordering any adult beverages–such as you might find in going to an Applebee’s, TGIFriday’s, etc. (I don’t remember how that one came out)
I told him that at GC2000, the Denver Post had an interview with waitstaff from various public houses in the area of the convention center. One waitress told the paper that we were the hardest-drinking religious convention she had ever seen.
Different denominations in very different places, on at least a couple of issues.
Where there are four Episcopalians (or Anglicans!!) there is always a “fifth”
And To Quote St. Paul: Drink no more water, but take a little wine for your stomach’s sake.
We have an interesting selection of denominations and positions so far. The Church of the Nazarene is modest in size and dedicated to a strong interpretation of Wesleyan holiness. They really are shooting for being perfected in love in this life and that means they stay away from temptation without subtlety or ambiguity.
Episcopalians and Anglicans tend, in varying degrees, to also see personal evil as a result of habits and tendencies, but they take what I think is a more accurate biblical view: Evil personal behavior really is individual and internal. The substances we put in our bodies don’t matter so much in terms of good and bad until they react with the person they enter.
The Southern Baptist Church is huge. In America, it is the Protestant equivalent of the Roman Catholic Church. Contrary to its heritage, it has elevated doctrinal uniformity to a central position. Baptist individualism has been submerged after the fashion of fish, with an even surface and a good deal of wiggle underneath the water. So, Peter Lumpkins can preach all he wants to and distort scripture and history to the extent he finds necessary, but Baptists will still drink.