So much for the 1st Amendment

[flaja]

My father’s family was nominally Baptist, but I never knew any of his family to be members of any church or go to services on any regular basis. My mother’s mother came from several of the first Lutheran families to settle in western North Carolina before the American Revolution. My mother’s father had an uncle who was a Baptist pastor, but I think her father was a Roman Catholic before she was born and he may have returned to Catholicism just before he died of lung cancer. However, I never knew him to be anything but an Atheist.

I became a Christian while attending a YMCA day camp when I was 4 years old. My parents divorced a short while later and I have seen little of my father since then (and I haven’t seen him at all since I was 14 years old). My mother is not a Christian so I was raised in a Christian home and had little opportunity to ever attend church services while growing up; the founding pastor of the only church that ever sent a Sunday School bus through my neighborhood was exposed as a child molester a few years before he died. The church’s leaders knew about the pastor and covered up for him for 30 years.

As an adult I have not been able to find a church that is sound in doctrine and practice and which shows a genuine concern for social welfare work. But when my uncle died unexpectedly in 2005 I inherited a fair amount of cash. I wanted to put the money towards building a non-profit college prep Christian school. However, I have been unable to find any church in Florida, Alabama, Georgia or the Carolinas that is capable or willing to provide land to build on and the necessary voluntary labor to build a school.

Since 2006 I have been looking for a pastoral position that would enable me to use my inheritance to promote the Gospel- either serving as a volunteer pastor or getting a small salary while using my own money to pay for church activities. I am King James only (of a sort), so I have been interested mostly in IFB and BBF churches. I’ve always had concerns about the independent polity of these churches and the tendency of their pastors to act like dictators, but I was willing to overlook this for the sake of having a King James only congregation.

However, I no longer wish to pastor an IFB or BBF church. I will still be King James only, but I no longer wish to be associated with these Baptists even in name. The discussion here regarding home schooling and Christian schools has been a very good display of certain Baptist attitudes that I find highly objectionable if not outright dangerous. I place great value on a well-rounded education, but I have come here only to have my status as a Christian questioned because of my own education. I firmly believe that it is imperative that Christians get an accredited education before they try to refute things like Darwinism. You cannot tell a scientist who was trained by the world that Darwinism is wrong without explaining why his training is wrong, and you cannot do this if you do not have similar training that is acceptable to the world’s scientist. Those of you here who believe that any education outside of a Christian school or home school is worthless and that you have compromised with Satan if you have a public school education are flat wrong, and you are the ones who are actually doing Satan’s work by holding up charlatans and fools, like Kent Hovind, as model Christians.

I have decided that, if I continue my search for a pastoral position, I will no longer consider IFB or BBF churches. Members of these two Baptist denominations seem to be the most belligerent, narrow-minded, self-centered, bombastic and (in many regards) ignorant people in Christendom.

That being said, I return to the issue of the closed thread. Since the moderators of this board are not in favor of open and honest debate with a free exchange of ideas on a board that is open to the public, I will no longer waste my time here.

For those of you who have given me words of encouragement, I wish to thank you and hope you Godspeed.

[MavMin]

The irony of your accusation is that as an old hippie I champion free speech more than most people. I even allow for hate speech for I'd rather know how the hater feels than have to guess. Thus, I am probably the most mellow fighting Fundie you will meet. If you can't run with the footmen than the horsemen would be a bit too much for you.

The other moderators would tell you that I have suggested tolerance on several issues in light of this being a public forum and that often there is a conflict of ideas.

There seemed to be no meaningful interchange going on in that message and some of the other members complained about your attitude and tone. I fully affirmed your right to believe as you di and asked you to tone it down or take off the edge of your posts. You did not seem to want to do that so I made the decision to lock the thread.

I would have to say that you came across more rude or arrogant than some of the other posters and you seemed to be on a vendetta. You actually had some of the traits of what the Netizens call a troll. We recently had one on here and some wondered if you were the same guy under another name. A troll comes in "as one of us" picks a fight, gets people excited and then reposts parts of their comments on another site to "prove" that what that group says about the other one is correct. Your approach did seem more like what a Liberal atheistic evolutionist would have taken. That is what could be perceived from you tone. That could well be a false perception bt nonetheless for the good of the board I chose to lock the thread.

Now, you can choose to take that out on all IFBs if you like and frankly I am relieved that you are not choosing to pastor an IFB church. Indeed, we do have a few too many that have similar approaches to issues among us. They tend to be a bane and embarassment so the fewer the better.

FYI, if I have a student wishing to be a scientist I will refer them to places like Answers in Genesis - Creation, Evolution, Christian Apologetics or Institute for Creation Research - A Christ-Focused Creation Ministry to find a suitable educational facility.

You are still free to participate in other discussions. I have no problem listening to opposing views. I just expect civility and that thread was leaving that behind.

Anyway, may God grant you great wisdom and discernment in your future endeavors.

[Michelle]

What's a BBF church?

[Pastor Rob Early]

Originally Posted by Michelle What's a BBF church?

I believe he is referring to the Baptist Bible Fellowship (:: Baptist Bible Fellowship International ::).

[Michelle]

Thank you

[MavMin]

Basically he is slapping anything Fundamantal, which again makes me think he was never really an IFB or maybe even a Baptist, but a troll looking for a fight or hoping we would ban him to make him a martyr among his group.

[george]

Aloha all,

Just a point of interest - "Flaja" showed up on another King James Bible Forum - which is not exclusively Baptist (of which I am a member) on July 24, 2008 and the administrator of that Forum gave "Flaja" the "boot" (banned him) on the 25th.! {I had nothing to do with his "banning", since my connection to the NET was down during that time.}

It seems that "Flaja" has a problem getting along with Bible believers, no matter "who" or "what kind" they are - NOT just Baptists! Can you imagine - he can't even "buy" his way into being a pastor! Pastors are here to "serve" God and to "minister" to His saints; there are enough "dictators" amongst the brethren without adding one more.

I believe that brother "MavMin" had "his number" and the measure of the man in his earlier comments.

2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

It's too bad (tragic & sad) - but the world (and especially America) is full of Sophists t these days.

[Floppyjoe]

I have decided that, if I continue my search for a pastoral position, I will no longer consider IFB or BBF churches. Members of these two Baptist denominations seem to be the most belligerent, narrow-minded, self-centered, bombastic and (in many regards) ignorant people in Christendom. That being said, I return to the issue of the closed thread. Since the moderators of this board are not in favor of open and honest debate with a free exchange of ideas on a board that is open to the public, I will no longer waste my time here.

Well it doesn't seem to have been a total waste.

Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

My advice to you flaja is to keep your money.

[george]

Originally Posted by Floppyjoe Well it doesn't seem to have been a total waste. My advice to you flaja is to keep your money.

Amen and AMEN brother! What the church of God needs now (more than ever) is more Bible believing preachers and less "intellectual" critics.