Website owner:  James Miller

  THE BAPTIST CHURCH --- A BASIC SOURCE OF EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS        
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   I have known a great many conservative Baptists over the years.  
   It is the group of people I have always been among and 
   identified with.  And after so much experience with a 
   particular group of people, after such a good sized sample of 
   acquaintances, one starts feeling he is able to make some 
   generalizations.  Specific groups of people do often tend to be 
   alike in certain ways, to carry certain marks which identify 
   them, to be characterized by certain personality traits or 
   attributes.  And the conservative Baptists do have some strong 
   ones.  How often I have said to myself, "Why is it that the 
   nasty, critical, disagreeable people always turn out to be 
   conservative Baptists?" or "Why do so many conservative 
   Baptists seem to have emotional problems?"  These are two 
   strong distinguishing marks that seem to characterize them.  
   Why?  The reasons are perhaps complicated and many.  Perhaps 
   the basic reason is that they overreact to Modernism and 
   Liberalism and fall into the sin of Hate.  Perhaps the fault 
   lies in their basic theology, with its strong emphasis on 
   "salvation by grace, not by works" and its "once saved, always 
   saved" doctrine, causing them to regard "obedience" as 
   optional.  Perhaps it lies in their idea that as Christians 
   they are supposed to be out aggressively testifying, witnessing 
   and winning souls --- and the negative response they receive 
   when they do this.  Perhaps the cause lies in their 
   preoccupation with doctrine and theological argument.  And 
   perhaps there is another basic reason, too.  It lies in their 
   basic conception of what sin is and what goodness, spirituality 
   or "being a Christian" should consist of.  Their concept of sin 
   is drinking, smoking, dancing and sexual immorality but it 
   (their concept) is completely silent, completely blank, with 
   regard to the subjects of Hate, Anger, and Strife.  They have 
   only a partial concept of what constitutes sin.  There are 
   missing elements in their concept.