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Condemning Gluttony

At last year's annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, the messengers debated and then passed a resolution condemning alcohol and those who drink (see my previous post here). Now, Ben Cole has proposed a resolution condemning gluttony. This makes a good--and funny--point. Since messengers condemned all alcoholic drinking (even though the Bible only explicitly condemns drunkenness), why not condemn something that the Bible condemns and that more Baptist pastors probably have a problem with? Here are a couple of my favorite segments from it:
WHEREAS, the expanding girth of many Southern Baptist ministers demonstrates the degree to which purported servants of Christ have sought excessively after those things that the pagans seek, having denied the beneficent and sufficient provision of their Lord (Mt 6:31);

... RESOLVED, That we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a gluttonous person;
This resolution will likely never make it out of committee for the messengers to consider, and it would not be good for it to be passed. But it still makes an excellent point. We need to focus less on condemning others for their behaviors and work more on serving God in our own lives.

Helping make a similar point in a more serious manner, Marty Duren has offered a resolution (the second one in his post) that urges Southern Baptists to be more careful with what resolutions they pass. It is called "Resolution Concerning Resolutions" (though I guess it could be called a meta-resolution). Here are a couple of excerpts from it:
WHEREAS, the scripture says that we are to be slow to speak (James 1:19);

... WHEREAS, Jesus taught us to make sure we had the log out of our own eye before trying to remove a splinter from the eye of another person (Luke 6:41, 42);

... RESOLVED, that resolutions addressing the sins of society be worded in such a way as to clearly identify the redemptive nature of the gospel, not merely the damning pronouncement of the law;

... RESOLVED, that the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in San Antonio, TX, June 2007 recognize that Southern Baptists do not have to speak to everything and, therefore, may often demonstrate wisdom, as did our Lord, by silence.
Amen! This is a resolution that should be passed. Hopefully, Southern Baptists (and Christians in general) will take the advice of this resolution and be much more careful with words.

4 comments:

  1. Kaylor,

    After "Pastor" Ben Cole published these words at his blog, Southern Baptist lay people knew they had additional proof that jerks can and do make it through Southern Baptist seminaries and end up on church staffs:

    Thursday, June 15, 2006
    Baptist Blogger - "No election of officers in the Southern Baptist Convention will be able to address the systemic and profound theological ignorance of the average messenger to the annual meeting."

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  2. I reviewed your book. I really enjoyed it. Sorry it took me so long to read but I didn't crack a book open last week.

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  3. livingdust: Thanks for the comment. Regardless what you may think of Cole, he is still making an excellent point with this resolution.

    And even if he is a “jerk” (I am not sure about that), he would not be the first to attend seminary, be on a church staff, or—dare I say it—even lead a seminary.

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  4. Kevin: Thanks so much for the kind words! I am glad you found it worthwhile as well as humorous. And don’t worry about not opening it last week—you were doing much more important work down in New Orleans. I’ve always enjoyed reading your thoughts, but I probably like this post the most! ;)

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