Canadian Baptists Are Ashamed to be "Southern!"

The audacity of Canadian Baptists!  This is just too much.  Let's get rid of these jerks.  If they don't want our name, we don't want them. The name "SOUTHERN Baptist" was good enough for Jesus and Paul, so why isn't it alright with Canadians?  No wonder their magazines cost more.

Comments

[Darryl]

Amen, eh!

[Tim Etherington]

A tightly argued case. I think it would win the day at the next SOUTHERN Baptist convention.

[Bill Kinnon]

I'm sitting here with my nice coffee porter wondering what Canadian mag you're talking abouy, eh.

[Jeff T]

Nice to see you come over to the fundie side! Is that the dark side too? :)

[Steve McCoy]

It only took one time seeing a debate on the SBC floor on changing the name from "Southern" to something else to realize that there are a lot of people in the SBC who idolize being "Southern." The arguments for keeping "Southern" in the name are mostly selfish and silly. Bravo to the Canadians. Smart, gospel-centered move.

[wcrum]

I still do not understand why we hold on the the term "Southern". It does not define us today. I was all in favor of Jack Graham's proposal to call us the International Baptist Convention. I think this name fits us a little better.

[Mark Goodyear]

You crack me up, Steve! Since I live in Texas, the name sort of works down here. Though we often get labeled an overly politicized denomination.

[Kevin]

Too late; the former European Baptist Convention is now the International Baptist Convention. Europe was too small for them and didn't represent scope of their denomination . . . and we're satisfied with a name that represents the Southeast USA.

[cavman]

Could be the Teetotaling Baptist Convention.

The interesting part of the article was the motion to have 1,000 baptisms in the next year. Good to have aspirations, but setting goals like that seem strange to me.

[Dan Barnett]

I had a thought. Since, I'm not from the South, Why am I Southern Baptist? What other Baptists should I distinguish myself from?---The Regular Baptists. Therefore, I shall now call myself an irregular Baptist. Think about it. Wouldn't it look cool to have the IBC? We could all drink IBC Root Beer, and then we could carry the IBC bottles around the convention. Boy, what looks we'd get. Ok, it's stupid. I thought it was worth a shot.

[Nick]

Hey man, I appreciate your desire to bust up idols and such, but I'm not sure that was a big motivating factor in the decision. I don't think we get much sway with how things go in Texas anyway (or Illinois for that matter, and you're a lot closer). Something like 80% of Canada lives within a few hours drive of the US border, so around here "southern" typically means "not Canadian." It was a good change.

[Steve McCoy]

Nick, I'm not saying the idolatry issue is why Canadian Baptists did this. I was saying that idolatry (among other things) will cause some in the SBC to recoil when folks aren't "proud" enough of our "southern heritage" to retain the name. In other words, the name change isn't about idolatry, but idolatry might cause some to hate that you all have changed the name.

[Nick]

Steve- You're undoubtedly right about that. Too bad really. I don't get the feeling it was meant as a snub.

Now the magazine prices, that's idolatry. If we make $0.07 on the dollar going south, why do we still have to pay more for the latest rag? Danged publishers.

I've been lurking about here for awhile, by the way. Thanks for the music reviews. Sleeping at Last is still a favorite. Check out Eliott Brood sometime for obscure coolness from this side of the border. They define their own style as "death country."

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks Nick. Good to have you as a reader, and now a commenter.

[Greg Alford]

cavman,

your "Irregular Baptist" comment had me rolling in in the floor...

I have finally found a label that accurately describes me… I am an Irregular Baptist!