Source: twincities.com 1/29/24
Let me share with you one of the worst and most important recent news stories that you’ve probably never heard about. Late last month, the Southern Baptist Convention settled a sex abuse lawsuit brought against a man named Paul Pressler for an undisclosed sum. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 and alleged that Pressler had raped a man named Duane Rollins for decades, with the rapes beginning when Rollins was only 14 years old.
The story would be terrible enough if Pressler were simply an ordinary predator. But while relatively unknown outside of evangelical circles, Pressler is one of the most important American religious figures of the 20th century. He and his friend Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, are two of the key architects of the so-called conservative resurgence within the SBC.
The conservative resurgence was a movement conceived in the 1960s and launched in the 1970s that sought to wrest control of the SBC from more theologically liberal and moderate voices. It was a remarkable success. While many established denominations were liberalizing, the SBC lurched to the right and exploded in growth, ultimately becoming the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
Well, the words “Christian” and “hypocrite” go hand in hand. They are almost synonyms in my view. The fondness of the evangelicals and other “Christian” conservatives for a moral pygmy like Donald Trump only prove my point. There is something Mark Twain wrote in his notebook that has long stuck with me. He wrote, “If Christ were here there is one thing he would not be—a Christian.” How true!
Lucky me. There is a SBC church right across the street from me. They don’t allow registrants to attend there. Very Christ like. No forgiveness possible in that church.