Old Hickory's Weblog

Well, kinda sorta.  Condi-Condi was the featured speaker at the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) national meeting of "messengers" this year.  The SBC has achieved such doctrinal conformity that the disputes in the denomination look to non-participants like either conflicts over personality and style, or ideological differences between hardline conservatives and hardline-but-smiley-face conservatives.

This is the first I've seen of anyone who was at the SBC national meeting raising any sort of objection to the enthusiastic reception that greeted the Secretary of State who was a major participant in planning a preventive war against Iraq and who staunchly defends the administration policy supporting criminal, sadistic torture.  Wade Burleson, who is on the Missions Board of the SBC and who was also a "messenger" at the national meeting, writes (The Tension Between Missions Success and the Military Killing the Terrorists Grace and Truth to You blog 07/28/06):

I wonder about the fact that we cheer the loudest at the Southern Baptist Convention when a strong, militaristic statement by our Secretary of State is made such as, "We will hunt down and destroy every single terrorist earth [sic] until peace reigns on earth" when it seems we ought to cheer the loudest when we hear statements like, "We will take the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, tribe, and kindred, and will not rest until Christ reigns in the hearts of mankind."

Whoa, give the guy some credit!  He called that a "militaristic statement"!!

He continues:

Please don't misunderstand. I believe we must fight terrorism militarily.

I am just wondering if we as Southern Baptists are in danger of being more passionate about military conquest than we are gospel conquest.

It's hardly what I would call ringing dissent.  In fact, all he criticizes there is one general statement of Condi-Condi's about the "global war on terror" and suggests that maybe, maybe that Southern Baptists are a tad overenthusiastic about the Cheney-Bush administration's deeds and policies.

He certainly didn't go so far as to criticize the Iraq War or the Cheney-Bush torture policy. 

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