A Collection of Retrospective Blog Responses to the SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans

The following are a collection of a few blog posts out of the hundreds of posts responding to the SBC annual meeting and the issues arising from it. These are listed simply to pull these diverse posts into a single forum (since most people probably missed at least some of them) to facilitate further dialogue. Of course, SBC Today does not (and could not possibly) endorse all of the diverse perspectives presented in these posts.

About the SBC in New Orleans

• “In the Town of New Orleans, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3,” by Bart Barber in the PraiseGod Barebones blog, with his reflections on the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.
• “Hardly a Mandate,” by Hariette Peterson in the SBC Encounters blog, with her response to the “descriptor” vote and other issues at the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.
• “Leaving Louisiana in Broad Daylight: the 2012 Southern Baptist Convention,” by Al Mohler in his Conventional Thinking blog, with his reflections on the SBC in New Orleans.
• “Al Mohler on Southern Baptists Solving Their Doctrinal Divide – “marginalize those whose influence should be marginalized,” by Peter Lumpkins in the SBC Tomorrow blog, with a response to Mohler’s article.
• “An Entity President and the Resolution on Unity,” by Tim Rogers in the Southern Baptist in North Carolina blog, with reflections on Mohler’s statement in light of the Unity resolution.
• “The SBC/Eddie,” by Eddie Wren in The Bridge blog, with his reflections on the SBC.

About the “Traditional Southern Baptist” Statement on Salvation

• “Of Unity and Heresy,” by Rick Patrick in SBC Voices, with an evaluation of the Unity resolution and a rejection of the charge of heresy by some against the traditional Southern Baptist understanding of salvation statement.
• “Chris/SBC,” by Chris Justice in The Bridge blog, with his reflections on the SBC in general and the salvation statement in particular.
• “Traditionalist Troublemakers? The Truth,” by Bart Barber in the PraiseGod Barebones blog, with a reminder that the framers of the document did not, in fact, do what they said they would not do with the statement, and not the rather paranoid projections of its critics.
• “Puzzling Ideas and Views of the Anti-Traditionalists,” by Hariette Peterson in the SBC Encounters blog, with their commentary about how strange and unreasonable she has found the responses of the Anti-Traditional Baptists has been to the modest proposal they have made public.
• “Breaking News: Baptists Do Dance,” by Tim Guthrie in the Winning Truth blog, noting Baptists “dancing’ between the soteriological divide between Calvinistic Baptists and the majority of Baptists.
• “My Take on the ‘Statement of a Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation,’” by Trey Medley in the WhyTheology blog, with reflections on the Salvation statement, and a withering critique of some of its critics.

About Calvinism in the SBC

• “SBC Pastors Polled on Calvinism and Its Affect on the Convention,” by Ed Stetzer in the LifeWay Research website, with a poll of about 1,000 SBC pastors indicating that (no surprise!) over three-fourths of SBC pastors consider themselves neither Calvinists nor Arminians, but Baptists. It also documents that over 60 percent of Southern Baptist pastors have concerns about Calvinism. Note the helpful downloadable Powerpoint and pdf files with graphics documenting the study that are linked on the right column.
• “Happy Southern Baptists and the Tricky Track,” by Paige Patterson in Baptist Press, with reflections on how the present discussion about Calvinism might be a good thing.
• “John the Baptist Looks at John Calvin,” by Jim Futral in the Mississippi Baptist blog, with the evaluation of the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of Mississippi Baptists of the role of Calvinism in the SBC.
• “Founders Calvinist Tom Nettles and the Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 1,” and “Part 2,” by Peter Lumpkins in the SBC Tomorrow blog, with a response to Tom Nettles’ remarks at the Founders meeting in New Orleans.

About Sinner’s Prayer Resolution (and David Platt’s Comments about It)

• “Southern Baptists Debate the Sinner’s Prayer,” in Christianity Today, with a story on the debate about the sinner’s prayer.
• “SBC Affirms ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ as Method to Salvation,” in ChurchLeaders.com, with an account of the successful approval of the Sinner’s Prayer resolution at the SBC.
• “Messengers OK Resolution on ‘Sinner’s Prayer’,” in Baptist Press, about the Sinner’s Prayer resolution winning overwhelming approval at the SBC in New Orleans.
• “Sinner’s Prayer and the SBC, Part 1” and “Part 2,” by David Platt at the Radical blog, with his reflections on the Sinner’s Prayer resolution and clarifications of his position.
• “The Sinner’s Prayer, David Platt, and the SBC,” by Danny Akin in the Between the Times blog, with his reflection on each of these issues.
• “Response to David Platt’s Convention Sermon,” by Eric Fuller in the Focal Point blog, with a response to Platt’s comments about the Sinner’s Prayer and other related issues.
• “David Platt’s Message at the 2012 Pastor’s Conference of the SBC,” by Bob Hadley at the SBC Issues blog, with a response to Platt’s sermon.

Read more at SBC Today