themattscott are you listening yet

So, two more news stories came out today regarding the SBC, and I thought I’d address them both. (USA Today & AJC)

In the USA today article, Frank Page, who had been trying to reform the party during his term, was quoted saying:

“I have admonished — lovingly but firmly — our convention not to get too close to any political party, parties change. I think we need to stay close to issues, and not hold allegiance to political parties.”

Which I must applaud. Actually, the more I read about Page and the changes he *tried* to bring, the more I like the guy. Page himself has even met with Obama, and says he will not blindly hold to either political party. I think that’s great advice that we can all learn from. I do fear that I may fall onto the democratic side of things, if the republic side continues to be resoundly pro-war, but thats a tangent for another post.

Anyways, contrast the above quote with this snippet from the AJC article:

The appointments Hunt will make will define whether he plans to hew the party line or open the leadership up to those outside the traditional circle of power, Key said.

Hunt said, “We went through 12 years of conservative resurgence, which I think was wonderful.

So, I am again concerned with the types of political moves the party will make. One point I forgot to mention yesterday was that Georgia’s Governor is a member (and Sunday School teacher) of Johnny Hunt’s church, which should shed a bit more light on how political they are.

So Blake asked yesterday if I thought that Johnny would “roll back the clock” on things like climate change, and I’ll answer “No” to that. I think that there is too much pressure globally to ignore climate change. Instead, I think that Johnny will increase the SBC’s social justice program, these two paragraphs from the USA Today article clues you in on that:

His church sponsors numerous outreaches into its Cherokee County community beyond the evangelism that has defined Southern Baptists. It has a food pantry, a ministry to burned-out pastors, English classes for immigrants and numerous ways to reach out to young people. In October, the church plans a three-day drive that will include free food and health care for the needy and it will send volunteers in the community to repair homes and clean up public spaces.

Hunt calls the program Loving Loud and wants to inspire the convention with it as well.

So, we’ll watch and wait to see how this all works out. I’m hopeful (about the social aspect), yet just a little bit worried (about the politics like homosexuality, and the right to buy alcohol on Sunday).