This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on June 27, 2024. Most of the noise at this month’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting was from men attempting to cement their pastoral power over women, Christian nationalists attacking religious liberty, messengers seeking to censure SBC leaders publicly, and the convention voting to oppose in vitro fertilization. These debates tend to grow from two fundamental priorities — the building up of the family and the spreading of the gospel.
Enjoyed reading this article, although, I have to admit I spent most of it appalled. Who are these people, and who got this binary salvation/burning concept into their heads so deeply.
In addition to being a pastor, I'm also an attorney. So I see Paul's "household rules" as a series of encouraged contracts or covenants between two parties rather than a set series of rules. And if one of my covenants is to love my child, then that does not mean relegating them to hell in my imagination at the slightest provocation. But then, I was not brought up as an evangelical SBC denizen.
Enjoyed reading this article, although, I have to admit I spent most of it appalled. Who are these people, and who got this binary salvation/burning concept into their heads so deeply.
In addition to being a pastor, I'm also an attorney. So I see Paul's "household rules" as a series of encouraged contracts or covenants between two parties rather than a set series of rules. And if one of my covenants is to love my child, then that does not mean relegating them to hell in my imagination at the slightest provocation. But then, I was not brought up as an evangelical SBC denizen.