Delegates at the denomination’s convention approved a stricter ban on female pastors and rejected the appeals of two churches led by women to remain in the denomination.
Yikes. There is quite a pattern developing in the religious right, in the US at least. We are turning back the clock folks.
I think even from a christian perspective the right thing to do wouldnt be to just accept a collection of scriptures as absolute truths (or to be precise the exact interpretation of those scriptures by the leaders of the group they happened to get into).
If you dont examine your beliefs with regard to historic evidence, and critical thinking you would have no way of knowing if there was some work by people (or if you believe in that even satan) when the current biblical canon was set up or when jewish tradition formed the old testament, etc.
Church leaders obviously dont talk about this that much, but being a follower of jesus and a good christian doesnt require one tho view the whole bible and one specific reading of it as a unified work of truth.
I dont know your exact stance on this topic, but in my experience there are too many people that dont examine the way current day teachings of their community got formed throughout history and just treat it like if god revealed it himself to them here and now.
If you happen to be interested here is a video by a yewish guy (though he views the bible from a historical viewpoint not in an orthodox way) exploring what we currently know about the bible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSkXmFun14
Hope i didnt sound disrespectful, i just like when discourse makes us revise our deeper beliefs.
Thank you for staying respectful! I’ve opened that video, but at 2.5 hours, even at high speed that’s a challenge. If I love it, then I’ll watch it all. I’m writing this reply before having watched any of it, though.
Are you familiar with the Karaite Jews? They reject the Midrash and the Talmud, standing in stark contrast to Rabbinic Judaism, and taking an approach close to Jesus’s values (though they’d probably never admit that). They actually read scripture, and strive to interpret it intelligently.
I do agree with you in principle that it’s good to do that, and I know Jesus does too. That doesn’t mean established beliefs are wrong, necessarily, but it’s always good to consider that they might be. You can certainly find historical and contemporary examples where self-professed Christians didn’t / don’t follow the Bible.
With all of that said, while I am somewhat open-minded, I do accept the holy Bible as the word of God, and I believe all extra-biblical historical documents, like the Apocrypha, only serve to reinforce its truth. What precisely that truth means, in detail, we may argue about, and Lord knows many do.
And in any case, this is all about SBC more than myself. Their interpretation of scripture is fairly literal and straight-forward. So while obviously some disagree with them, they can hardly be blamed for being a Christian group who follows the Bible.
I think even from a christian perspective the right thing to do wouldnt be to just accept a collection of scriptures as absolute truths (or to be precise the exact interpretation of those scriptures by the leaders of the group they happened to get into).
If you dont examine your beliefs with regard to historic evidence, and critical thinking you would have no way of knowing if there was some work by people (or if you believe in that even satan) when the current biblical canon was set up or when jewish tradition formed the old testament, etc.
Church leaders obviously dont talk about this that much, but being a follower of jesus and a good christian doesnt require one tho view the whole bible and one specific reading of it as a unified work of truth.
I dont know your exact stance on this topic, but in my experience there are too many people that dont examine the way current day teachings of their community got formed throughout history and just treat it like if god revealed it himself to them here and now.
If you happen to be interested here is a video by a yewish guy (though he views the bible from a historical viewpoint not in an orthodox way) exploring what we currently know about the bible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSkXmFun14
Hope i didnt sound disrespectful, i just like when discourse makes us revise our deeper beliefs.
Thank you for staying respectful! I’ve opened that video, but at 2.5 hours, even at high speed that’s a challenge. If I love it, then I’ll watch it all. I’m writing this reply before having watched any of it, though.
Are you familiar with the Karaite Jews? They reject the Midrash and the Talmud, standing in stark contrast to Rabbinic Judaism, and taking an approach close to Jesus’s values (though they’d probably never admit that). They actually read scripture, and strive to interpret it intelligently.
I do agree with you in principle that it’s good to do that, and I know Jesus does too. That doesn’t mean established beliefs are wrong, necessarily, but it’s always good to consider that they might be. You can certainly find historical and contemporary examples where self-professed Christians didn’t / don’t follow the Bible.
With all of that said, while I am somewhat open-minded, I do accept the holy Bible as the word of God, and I believe all extra-biblical historical documents, like the Apocrypha, only serve to reinforce its truth. What precisely that truth means, in detail, we may argue about, and Lord knows many do.
And in any case, this is all about SBC more than myself. Their interpretation of scripture is fairly literal and straight-forward. So while obviously some disagree with them, they can hardly be blamed for being a Christian group who follows the Bible.