Yet Another Quotable Quote

"I want to affirm the fundamentals of the faith and stand in the tradition of historic orthodoxy and the Rule of Faith. But I'd rather be stripped naked, tarred, feathered, and paraded around Tenessee Temple University while wearing a sign saying "I am Bill Clinton's love child, so make me governor of Tenessee" before I became a Fundamentalist."

-Mike Bird, speaking on Fundamentalism - and based on the context, the kind I grew up in :-)

p.s. The CT article he was referencing links to Baylor's blog. Schmoozing...the real reason he went to TEDS :-)

Cooperation?

The right hand of fellowship? Yeah...been there done that.

Joe Zichterman

Remember A Passion for Thee and Perfect Peace? While I have heard snippets here and there, first hand second hand, three time removed and embellished, it's good to hear a first hand account of how the Lord has been working in Joe's life. If you haven't heard the lecture he delivered a few weeks back at TEDS (yeah, we know...easy sweet guys) check it out on his website here. Look for the audio link Why I joined Willow Creek Community Church. You might not like it all, but it's definately interesting. Of course you can check out all the dorm room gossip in the usual place(s) after (if your sanctification can stand it), but make sure you hear what he has to say first.

(HT: J to the Third Power) While this hat tip may seem strange seeing at the time I posted this there was nothing on his blog...credit to who it is due leads me to tip my hat to Jones for pointing to this link. Likewise, I believe he has some thoughts brewing that will most likely shared in the next 24 hours or so--so keep your eyes on J to the Third Power too!

Thomas Has Nom de Plume?

Congratulations are in order for Adam Thomas of Thomas Colloquiums -- apparently the first of my buddys to get published, albeit under an apparent pen name. Okay, maybe not, but when I saw this volume at Barnes and Noble today, Thomas was the first thing that came to my mind :-)

Mike Bird on the SBC and Fundamentalism

About a year ago now, I researched and wrote a paper on the conservative resurgence in the SBC for Baptist History. My primary motivation was to discover first hand just how conservative the SBC really was. I kept hearing from fundamentalists that the resurgence was largely overexagerated and the majority of the SBC was still liberal. My own exposure to the SBC seemed to suggest otherwise, particularly seeing most of the books I was reading were by professors from within the SBC schools. Having begun to come to grips with the realization that the trajectory I was on would put me outside of the fundamentalist orbit before too long, I was interested in seeing if the SBC would be a good place to plug in. After several weeks of reading and almost 30 pages of writing I came to the conclusion that not only was the conservative resurgence genuine, but perhaps the pendulum had swung a bit too far. I began to suspect that the SBC was moving culturally in the direction of fundamentalism and that a move to the SBC would result in little forward progress. This assumption was largely confirmed when the convention took the unbiblical position on alchohol that exploded in the blogoshpere last year.

While I may not have spent too much time online in the last two weeks, I did make time to keep up with Euangelion and Jesus Creed. Though I recognize the post I'm about to reference is a week old, it's significant enough to point out, especially since I'm assuming that I'm not the only one who was out of the blogosphere last week. As I read Mike Bird's post on Russell Moore's evaluation of the SBC, fundamentalism and evangelicalism I was encouraged (though perhaps ultimately discouraged) to see that my conclusions on the convention were not too wide of the mark (according to both Bird and Moore). You can read Mike Bird's response here if you haven't yet (I reccomend you print it off; it's pretty long), though I suggest you start by listening to Moore's lecture first here.