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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Four things I don't like...

...about the Southern Baptist Convention.

Its charter
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same. That from and after the passing of this act, That William B. Johnson, Wilson Lumpkin, James B. Taylor, A. Docrey, R. B. C. Howell and others, their associates and successors, be and they are hereby incorporated and made a body politic by the name and style of the Southern Baptist Convention..."

The Southern Baptist Convention is a corporation of individuals and their successors chartered in 1845 by the authority of the state of Georgia.

Its purpose
"...said corporation being created for the purpose of eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the Baptist denomination of Christians..."

The purpose sets the Convention in an aggressive stance toward the churches, to see that they combine, organize and finance in such a way to meet the Convention's goals.

Its composition and money basis
The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention consists of messengers who are members of Baptist churches "in friendly cooperation with the Convention." Each church is allowed two messengers and are permitted up to twelve based on their financial contributions.*

The friendly cooperation and monetary basis insulates the Convention from the evaluation and supervision of churches which disagree with the direction and vision of the leaders of the Convention (e.g. if they choose to withhold funds from an entity or entities because of disagreements over errant doctrine and practice, they are punished for that act with loss of messengers).

Either "(1) One additional messenger for each full percent of the church’s undesignated receipts which the church contributed during the fiscal year preceding through the Cooperative Program, and/or through the Convention’s Executive Committee for Convention causes, and/or to any Convention entity; or (2) One additional messenger for each $6,000 which the church contributed during the fiscal year preceding through the Cooperative Program, and/or through the Convention’s Executive Committee for Convention causes, and/or to any Convention entity."

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