interesting...

In the light of the recent "open letter" drama regarding Cecil Sherman's remarks at the CBF convention, I felt the need to throw in my two cents, and pass along an interesting quote...

I do not condone the Holocaust remark. It is distasteful and wrong to use that as an analogy for the SBC takeover. However, Dr. Sherman is still worthy of great respect for the role he played in the formation of the CBF. You can't ask him to stop talking about it...the man lived it! And to write an "open letter" (which was not even sent first to Dr. Sherman) claiming to speak for all "young CBF members" (which it does not) that is signed by people who to my understanding are not even directly in ministerial positions in local churches (which helps one to see the complexity of how denominational life works)...it's a bit presumptuous. I have not had time to fully process the entire situation, but this is what I know:

I am a young CBF member. These people do not speak for me. Yes, the CBF needs to continue searching for a new direction, but to ignore the past is wrong. We cannot dwell in it, or continually rehash it, but it is important to learn from it. Why, you ask?

Well, just this afternoon, a quotation was passed along to me from a fellow minister. It's taken from a sermon last year preached by Colleen Burroughs at the CBFV General Assembly on March 10, 2007. I know that a husband and wife can have separate opinions, but given the recent events it caught my attention...

“If you are students or someone under the age of 30 in this room, you may be tired of hearing about your Baptist history, but it is important to understand how the people before us have lived. It’s important to know and understand with whom we have disagreed with as Baptists and why it has made people uncomfortable. You may think it has nothing to do with you, that it’s not your fight, but you would be wrong. It is woven into the very fabric of who you are as young Baptists.”

Just my two cents...