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Does the “Traditional Values Coalition” represent your church?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Benjamin, Sep 29, 2008.

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  1. Benjamin

    Benjamin Well-Known Member
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    I had to write an essay for philosophy and part of it was to evaluate the argument from the Rev. Sheldon in which it was declared that this organization, http://www.traditionalvalues.org/ he being the chairman, speaks on behalf of 43,000 churches. Which I don’t buy.

    The opposing view was from “USA Today” and the subject was over the issue of marriage. Although, I needed to pick a position and it was to keep and support the sanctity of marriage to be between a man and woman, I had little choice but to rip apart the logic, and lack of reasoning, in my evaluation of the Rev. Sheldon’s argument in the process. His arguments were so weak so as to be of no help to me in suppoting my position. Considering the supposed credentials it raised suspicion in the representation of him for this argument. So, one of my issues was that it is not credible that this dude (Rev. Sheldon) speaks on behalf of 43,000 churches; heck, many if not a vast majority of pastors could have argued with better reasoning.

    I’m curious what others think of this claim that he is the voice of opposition on this magnitude. (43,000 churches!) I’m probably going to end up debating this in class and will want to chop off the legs out from under those who will attempt to stand on this guy majorly representing the opposing argument.
     
    #1 Benjamin, Sep 29, 2008
  2. ktn4eg

    ktn4eg New Member

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    While I'm not necessarily against several things that the TVC promotes, I too have some reservations about some of the claims that Rev. Sheldon has made for this organization.

    On what specific basis does he base this claim "to speak for 43,000 churches:

    1. Is that the number of churches that is on the TVC's mailing lists?

    Just because I may be on a certain person's or organization's mailing list doesn't mean I either support or oppose whoever or whatever sent a particular mailing to me.

    As with most folks, I get a lot of unsolicited mailings. Some I look at; most go directly to file 13.

    2. Is that the number of people on the TVC's mailing list who have a title of "Rev." affixed to their name (regardless of whether or not that individual actually pastors a specific local church [e.g., Jesse Jackson])?

    3. Even if "Pastor X" or "Rev. X" might be the pastor of a given local church, does that, by itself, mean that even a majority of the members of the local church that this person pastors is in total agreement on absolutely every position on a given political or social issue that "Pastor X" might personally hold?

    That's like President Bush claiming to speak for everyone in the USofA.

    So, yes, I tend to agree with Benjamin on this point.

    It'd be interesting to hear directly from Rev. Sheldon about this (as well as some other claims he has made in the past).
     
    #2 ktn4eg, Sep 29, 2008
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